Signature Bank of New York says it wants to give that $120 million it received from the government three months ago right back. Put that together with announcements from two other banks that they’ll be returning the money and you’ve got a trend, right?

But so far there seem to be far more banks eager to get their hands on Treasury Department funds than there are to get rid of it. Every week, the Treasury invests millions more in 20 to 30 banks. Last week was no different: The Treasury invested $285 million in 22 banks. You can see our running tally of all those banks here. Setting aside the auto companies and floundering giants like AIG, Citigroup and Bank of America, the Treasury has so far invested $152.6 billion in nearly 500 banks. So while three banks say they’re going to give the money back soon, 487 won’t be.

This morning, Treasury official Neel Kashkari testified to Congress that 500 to 1,000 more banks are “in the pipeline” for an investment, meaning that Treasury’s weekly injections will likely continue for several more months.

Signature’s CEO Joseph DePaolo announced that his bank would be returning the money at an investor conference yesterday, but said that he was still waiting for federal regulators’ OK. The law requires that banks give the Treasury 30 days’ notice before returning the funds. He did not explain why the bank was returning the money, and a spokeswoman declined to comment.

The New York Timesfirst reported the announcement in a story last night on banks seeking to return bailout money. (The list of banks that have expressed a desire to return the money is much longer than those that have actually begun the process.) The main motivation, the paper reported, is the growing number of strings attached to the money. Banks are pressured to lend and have to watch their expenses, lest a soiree or junket prove outrageously swanky. The most aggressive and concrete new terms are the executive compensation limits included in the stimulus bill. Under those terms, Signature’s five highest compensated executives would have seen their bonuses limited.

Of course, neither Signature nor any of the banks returning the money have been crystal clear in just why they’re doing it. TCF Financial’s CEO, for example, only said that “recent actions” from Treasury and “possible congressional or regulatory restrictions/mandates” had “changed the rules.” No mention was made in TCF’s announcement that the new compensation rules will affect bonuses for TCF’s five most senior execs and 10 next highest compensated employees.

3 comments

Is this whacked or what? Somebody tell me that I am not getting this: the CEO’s acting ever-so-faithfully on the behalf of the shareholders are turning away free public money because ...their already opulent compensation packages will be compromised. It’s reprehensible conduct.
How can we trust this vermin to act in the public interest if they won’t watch over the interests of their own shareholders?! It’s a betrayal of the people who have sacrificed so much in the long struggle for our democratic principals. This vile breed of ‘respectable traitors’ will be our undoing. Traitors! Traitors! Traitors are in our very midst! Sound the alarm! These highly vaunted CEO’s have already cost us billions of dollars… with a “b”: billions! And now ...this? And we’re just going to let it go?
Okay: I can feel myself going off of the deep end here…deep breath. Deep breath. But: is there no one who shares in my outrage?! Is it not scandalous that economic mayhem strikes our country because of CEO greed and then just months later these very same CEO’s continue to act exclusively in their own self interest? Has nothing been learned? Is there nothing that can be done other than to watch, sputter vitriole and ‘wave our naughty bits in their general direction”?! Is there no (legislative? legal?) way for us to take these people down, down, down? Is our only option to “strongly protest”? Remember: it’s a “b”!!

I am so proud of the few that have now decided against, the $700b swindle money. The whole $700b swindle was an assinine proposal that the jellyspined U.S. Congress actually implemented, at the behest of G.W.Bush, and his hinchmen like Paulson, Bernanke, Cox, Baird…& plenty of others. {dodd,franks,pelosi…}

Now a few of the sharper bankers, have allowed the ‘stupid dust’ to clear…and they rightly are getting as far away from the cesspool of intentional liquidation of the government as possible.

These same spineless government legislator, & executives also implemented last year in another assinine program I like to call the $300.oo bribary of the citizenry. I think they called it ‘stimulus check’ or some such nonsense. That little program also liquidated government assets. Just so ya know…my ‘$300 bribe check’ is still hanging on my wall, never cashed.

Why in heck would I want their ‘stupid money’ if I didn’t earn it?

And there was strings attatched to that little bribe just as there is a WEB of strings applied to larger fish like these banks. (are YOU a fish?) So when I completed my IRS 1040 this year, I didn’t have to report the $300.oo bribe! But if you accepted your bribary check then you not only should of reported it, but you also noticed that you did NOT report it in the ‘income’ section of your report.

No, the strings attatched on the bribe was to force common citizens into reporting it under the ‘expense section’ of your report, yeilding the intentional double hit out of the U.S. Treasury. Because the rinky-dink ‘$300.oo bribe’ program across every citizen didn’t even make a dent in the vast amounts required to bankrupt this country, the Paulson/Bernanke lead proposal ($700b swindle)intended the same kind of havoc on the resourses of this country only in a much more devastating way. Once again handing out ‘fail-out checks’ nationwide, and with the evil web of strings attatched too the monies, the full effect happens once again at tax time. Haven’t you noticed!!! Not anyone in government is proposing a tax hike, IN THE FACE OF TWO WAR FRONTS, & THE LARGEST WORLDWIDE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN EVER.

I guess they just wanna keep playing in the ‘stupid dust’...with loads of excuses, & good intentions to cover the trail to Hell. There is only 3 banks that have the balls to say stfu!

Oh and just incase you were asleep at the wheel, today Geithner said at the congressional hearing, that NO NEW TAXES for at least a couple years, and then he threw in THE FUN PART:...‘entitlements for the babyboomer IS GOING TO TAKE A HIT, that is the PLAN’

hahhahahahhahahaha

wild;)

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